(Clearwisdom.net) As the Fa-rectification advances, the local practitioners in Baoding City as a whole are doing better and better. Small supply sites of Dafa truth-clarifying materials are springing up everywhere. More and more practitioners are taking the initiative to participate in Fa-rectification work. Practitioners are clarifying the truth of Dafa to people more thoroughly than before. Although there have been some problems recently in each area, Dafa disciples as one body have made great progress, and those problems were finally resolved. The current issue is that we feel that the whole body is still a little separated. Some practitioners have appeared unconcerned and weary, and they have shown a lack of initiative and seem to wait for and rely on others to do the truth clarifying work. Not feeling confident and feeling fearful of people saying that we are participating in politics, some practitioners have been overly cautious in their clarifying the truth. Although small truth-clarifying material supply sites have sprung up everywhere, coordination of follow-up as a whole body has been lacking. Communication among practitioners is still limited, and there is some estrangement among practitioners. Some practitioners still have fear and cannot step forward.
I think that it is not only a problem of how to do things but it is also a problem of how to upgrade our xinxing in order to solve these problems. Thus I would like to share some of my understanding on how to improve our xinxing.
Be strict with ourselves and do not forget our mission
For a long time, some practitioners have not gotten rid of their fundamental attachments and they cannot, from their hearts, clarify the truth and save sentient beings. Master's recent articles and the lecture in New York tell us to let go of human attachments, for we are human beings who are walking on the path toward godhood. Do not forget our mission. What in this human world do we need to be attached to?
"Think about it, why did beings from distant cosmic bodies come here? Because Fa-rectification was going to take place in the cosmos, and they are representatives of the extremely massive groups of beings in distant cosmic bodies and colossal firmaments; they came here to establish a karmic relationship with Master so as to ensure that in Fa-rectification they wouldn't be left out amidst the reconstruction of the entire cosmos; their goal was to allow the sentient beings there to be saved. Massive, countless groups of beings are over there."
Teacher also points out,
"...then think about it, doesn't every Dafa disciple represent a different gigantic cosmic body? If that's the case, doesn't whether a Dafa disciple cultivates well or poorly determine whether those gigantic cosmic bodies' beings get saved or not?" ("Touring North America to Teach the Fa")
There are also some practitioners who were very determined in the past and remained steadfast through the persecution since its beginning on July 20, 1999, but who now have loosened the demands on themselves.
"Cultivation and Fa-rectification are serious. Whether you are able to treasure this period of time is, in fact, a matter of whether you can be responsible to yourselves. This period of time will not last long, but it can forge the mighty virtue of magnificent Enlightened Beings, Buddhas, Daos, and Gods of different levels, and even Lords of different levels. It can also destroy overnight a cultivator who has reached a really high level but who has become less strict with himself." ("Fa-Rectification Period Dafa Disciples")
As long as we always bear in mind our mission as a Dafa practitioner and treat everything with righteous thoughts and treat people with compassion, we can certainly become refreshed.
Respecting Teacher and the Fa and treating cultivation seriously
If we cannot act strictly according to what Master said and do not conform to or even disobey Dafa, we are far from respecting Teacher and the Fa. It is a serious problem for a practitioner. All gods are watching us.
Some practitioners have stumbled on this problem but still could not recognize it. No practitioner thinks that he or she does not respect Master and the Fa. But whether we truly respect Master and the Fa is not just about how we talk about it or how we feel about it, it is whether we can in practice hold a firm belief in Master and the Fa. We make a choice whenever we do things or think about things, a choice of whether we listen to Master and do things based on the Fa or, on the other hand, base our actions on human notions and attachments. From the beginning of our cultivation, we have been making choices. Especially in these last five years, we persisted through numerous difficulties, following our revered Master with our choice of firmly believing in Master and Dafa in each single thought of ours. Master said we were remarkable. But actually we haven't done anything. All things have been done by Master. Master only wants us to be righteous, which comes from our firm belief in Master and the Fa.
As Fa-rectification period Dafa disciples, the most magnificent beings in the universe, we should know better than other beings about what it means to truly respect Master and the Fa. Harmonizing and completing things according to Master's arrangements is the best demonstration of our compassion, and it is also a being's honor. If we cannot understand it and want to yield or fall short of the promise, if we are always uncertain about things and do not have a deep understanding or our own understanding, and if we cannot take the Fa as our Teacher or even throw doubt upon what Master said, then we should seriously examine ourselves. At the key junctures, our main consciousness must remain clear! We should not follow our human notions and do whatever we would like to do. How can disciples not listen to their Master? Do you really believe in Master? Do you firmly act according to the Fa? If not, how can it be regarded as respecting Master and the Fa?
Respecting Master and the Fa is a very serious thing even within normal personal cultivation; however, we are cultivating in the Fa-rectification period. History has bestowed upon us such a great responsibility. Master has bestowed upon us the most supreme glory, that of Fa-rectification Dafa disciples, so we should even more seriously treat this issue. Teacher said,
"If a person can't cultivate in the Fa, then he isn't able to truly understand the Fa. Only when a person has truly grasped the Fa can he walk the path righteously and can his being be assured a good outcome. Otherwise that kind of being remains in the most perilous situation, because the evil can take advantage of his gaps at any time. If he were an ordinary person, no matter how bad he was, the evil wouldn't pay any attention to him. Because he wants to cultivate, though, the evil will try to stop him from cultivating. And when you don't cultivate solidly you become a target for the evil's persecution."
("Teaching the Fa at the 2004 International Fa Conference in New York")
The Fa has different standards for us at different levels, and we should cultivate according to the standards of the Fa at each level.
Constantly searching inward and cultivating within, being truly in control of ourselves
The beings that the gods favor least are those who cannot find their true selves and cannot control themselves. To fully control ourselves, we should completely negate the old forces' arrangements. This includes the negation of the old factors in our body, all the degenerated human notions, and the evil spirit of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). To fundamentally negate it, we should search inward. Completely negate the old forces' existence and eliminate all of the CCP evil spirit's factors. The process of negation and elimination is also a process of finding, correcting, and eliminating the corrupted principles in the old universe and the deviated human notions existing in our mind. It is also a process of saving numerous beings in the cosmic firmaments. When facing the evil's interference during our validating the Fa and clarifying the truth, we cannot simply say in words only, "I do not accept you;" we should also have the righteous belief in Master and the firm faith in the Fa that come from our cultivation of the Fa. We should righteously negate all of the old or human thinking mechanisms, purify everything using the righteous Fa, and dissolve all of the unrighteous factors.
So whenever a problem or a conflict occurs, we should not treat it like a conflict or a combat among everyday people. The phenomenon among practitioners of blaming one another or blaming other people for a specific thing is also the manifestation of the degenerated notions in our old cosmic body that we have not yet gotten rid of. And the behind-the-scenes evil dark minions will also take advantage of it. Whether we can search inward when facing problems or conflicts is a fundamental difference between beings in the old cosmos and beings in the new cosmos. Only the beings created within the old principle of "formation-stasis-degeneration-destruction" in the old cosmos have such thinking. They are attached to themselves, don't want to change themselves and instead want to change others, which causes the old cosmos to head toward destruction. We are also beings that were created in the old cosmos. If we want to reach the eternity of our beings, we must shake off the principles of the old cosmos and fundamentally change our human notions. We should overcome the habit of seeking outside ourselves and try to look inward, so as to achieve a harmonious and unshakable state.
Based on experience, we realized that a momentary slip could have a big impact. We realized that when we are insistent on our own opinions, when we look for others' defects, blame others and continue in this manner for a long time, we waste lot of time and cause countless beings to be eliminated. When we continue to hold onto our own notions without realizing how many beings we've destroyed and still consider ourselves as cultivating well and blaming others, enlightened beings look down unfavorably on us. Moreover, if we don't take our Master's benevolence seriously and behave in a way that is not aligned with the Fa, then what path are we walking down? Are we complying with the evil and their degenerated notions? Saying too much of what we are not supposed to say, and causing an adverse impact among fellow practitioners, isn't this interference with the Fa-rectification? Isn't this a serious problem? Shouldn't we have awakened by now?
"I've said all along that Dafa disciples can't go to extremes. You must walk your path well. If you let your imagination run wild, and you have a crooked understanding about something today and have a sudden inspiration and do something else tomorrow, or you keep doing stupid things while driven by your attachment to showing off, all of those things are direct reflections of your master soul and of you as a being. How could such a person Consummate? Your actions are displays of your main body that is cultivating, and that is the same main body that's to be saved. Could such a being be placed among the gods? No, it couldn't. So you must do things well and cultivate rationally, clear-headedly, and with righteous thoughts." ("Teaching the Fa at the 2004 International Fa Conference in New York")
I often ask myself, am I a real Dafa practitioner? When I don't think deeply enough about this issue, I do feel that I'm a diligent practitioner. However, when I use the Fa to measure myself, I blush because I realize that I haven't done well in lots of things, which I regret. When you do anything there are always two options: to do it based on what Master asks us to do and follow the path Master sets for us, or to comply with the evil forces and be manipulated by them. Throughout my day, how much time or how many thoughts do I have about the Fa. Those thoughts that I don't base on the Fa correspond to the moments where I don't control myself, the moments that the evil controls me, and the moments that I'm not clearheaded. These are the moments of interference with the Fa-rectification, and they are also the most dangerous moments. Shouldn't this be alarming enough to awaken us and to make us pay special attention to these things?
When we see others' incorrect behavior, it should be a mirror for us to see ourselves, to see whether we have the same kind of behavior. Whenever there is an issue, it's not just the others' problem. We try to put the responsibility on others and the blame on other people. We like to direct, control and manipulate others to have them comply with us. When we have opinions that are different from others, we talk behind their backs instead of pointing it out to them in an upfront manner. We always think we are right and we can't listen to others' opinions. We only see the positive side of things and cannot identify problems in time. We cannot calmly analyze things based on the Fa. We always consider ourselves right, and we are always defensive. We are always afraid of this and that, and so on. Aren't these situations all coming from our human notions and the Chinese Communist Party's (CCP's) culture? The more we study the Fa, the more we are able to realize these problems, which are all things that we should eliminate.
On the other hand, when we let go of our own notions and find our own problems and correct them, there are earth-shattering changes in other dimensions. These changes could be reflected in our body or our thoughts. Sentient beings from different dimensions are being saved benevolently, and are assimilated to Dafa. This is why we came here, to save these sentient beings. This is how we save them and rectify all of the incorrect behavior of all sentient beings. We have to rectify everything using Dafa and our righteous thoughts. Master has told us how the cosmos was generated; it was generated from one thought of an enlightened being. When you let go of an attachment or your own notions, the sentient beings in that dimension will be saved. Master fundamentally changes us and uses the Fa to rectify and renew the degenerated things and gives us brand new lives generated by Dafa. The old laws of the old cosmos couldn't achieve this.
In practice, I gradually realized that looking inside ourselves for the source of our problems and cultivating inwards is the fundamental way we can upgrade our xinxing and reach Consummation. Seeking an external solution is essentially following an evil path and is a reflection of selfishness. Looking inward is all-encompassing and considerate of others, which is the fundamental difference between the life of the old cosmos and that of the new cosmos. If we do not look inward when facing issues, we are not cultivating. If our hearts don't change, we will not get to the next level of cultivation. Therefore, we should clear-mindedly look inside and work on ourselves. When you have conflicts with others, it is you having conflicts with yourself. When you are not treating others kindly, it is you not treating yourself kindly. When you hurt somebody else, it is you hurting yourself. All of the good and bad acts will eventually come down to you. The critical point comes when you are involved in conflicts and unrighteous thoughts are occurring to you; how you will be able to collect yourself and be in control of yourself and not be controlled by any outside evil. You can only control yourself if you find your true self. And only when you truly control yourself will you be able to eliminate the evil. Only that which assimilates to the characteristics of "Truthfulness, Compassion and Forbearance" is our true selves. Everything else reflects areas we either need to rectify or problems we need to eliminate in the Fa-rectification.
Dafa practitioners' well-cultivated aspects of themselves will not have conflicts with others because we are integrated as one body. Our well-cultivated sides can tolerate and understand others. That is the true self. All of the rest needs to be rectified or eliminated. From the standpoint of the Fa, when you use the Fa to measure yourself, you will find your problems and your mistakes; you will feel sorry about what you did to others and you will not blame others. If you search inside yourself and cultivate yourself like this, you will continuously experience the feeling of "After passing the shady willow trees, there will be bright flowers and another village ahead!" You will become increasingly calm and clearheaded. Your kind and compassionate thoughts will become stronger. Your mind will become broader. You will be thinking of others often and will be thinking more from the fellow practitioners' standpoint, and hence you will understand their behavior and situation. You will even ignore fellow practitioners' attachments and only see their greatness. You will not be easily affected by others or by changes in the outside environment. Your benevolence will be generated from this. You will experience the true meaning and the wonderful realm of living and existing for others.
We need to be willing to accept others' opinions and to respect, understand and tolerate others
You will be able to listen to others and to take others' opinions only when you let go of your own notions. You will not attach to others' attachments. You will be able to look beneath the surface and identify the principles that fellow practitioners have enlightened to, which will be a supplement for yourself, and you will learn about your own shortcomings from it. You will be able to analyze your own problems more objectively and point out fellow practitioners' problems more objectively, which will be easier for them to accept. Oftentimes we say things in our own way. Even if your opinion is right, it is based on principles from your own perspective (or level) and your own point of view, which is not absolute and not the only way. Maybe you will be negating it yourself the very next day. Why would you want to persist that hard and ask others to comply with you as well? You may be absolutely persistent at something that is not necessarily from your true self. Why don't others listen when you point out their attachments? Oftentimes when we talk about somebody else, we use our own notions and our own opinions, and we don't consider others' situation. Moreover, if we add condemning tones, and if they haven't gotten to that cultivation level yet, then they will not be able to easily accept it. But when you let go of your own notions and sincerely help your fellow practitioners and put yourself in their position - being understanding of their environment, their cultivation stage, their path of cultivation, and their issues - your opinion will be pertinent. If your method of communication is right for the situation and you are sincere, other people will recognize it and be willing to accept it.
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